BL Drama Lovers Club

Winter Sun

I watched the first two episodes. Everything feels beautiful and poignant, even when not much is happening. I think the music, cinematography, and scenery have a huge influence on how I feel while watching. It’s all so beautiful, I think of the emotions as beautiful too.

Despite not much happening there is already a strong emotional feeling between the two MLs. The “assistant’s” behavior doesn’t completely make sense, but maybe he’s been obsessed with the actor for awhile. In any case, I’m already invested.

Btw, the tags say “age gap (drama life)” but there are 8 years between the actors in real life too.

Indie Art Girl:

My theory without seeing the rest of the eps available, is it might give more time for the leads to have the separations mentioned in the drama summary. Here's a quote: "...pushing them toward separation time and again."

Yeah, this makes sense. Those make-up and reunion scenes will be interesting to watch.

Hello! I've had an account here for the longest time, but only have relized this was a feature! I really wanna make friends and find from recs for good shows.

AngelOnPoison:

Hello! I've had an account here for the longest time, but only have relized this was a feature! I really wanna make friends and find from recs for good shows.

Welcome!

AngelOnPoison:

Hello! I've had an account here for the longest time, but only have relized this was a feature! I really wanna make friends and find from recs for good shows.

Welcome to the club 👋

Hmm, I can't remember if this was already posted. Anyways ...
"Make It Right", the cutie-filled but messy 2016 BL classic by Cheewin, is getting a 10-year remake "Make It Right 2026", likewise by Cheewin / Copy A Bangkok:

Double Helix - Finale

Let me preface by reiterating that due to how the writers wrote the script, in my opinion, this cannot be considered an authentic remake of the source material. Lu Feng and by extension the series was written in such a way that the audience would find it all more digestible to watch; this effectively resulted in a much more tamed down version in contrast to the novel and movies. I think it was a smart move to maximise on popularity and profit. It really came down to a choice between profit and authentic story telling; the former was deemed more important by production. I do not agree with the diluting of a story for whatever reason, but I understand. Therefore, in writing this review I am doing so treating this series as a standalone inspired by the novel.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Who is the Black Flag?

I think it is a mistake to think toxic behaviour only exists in overt acts; things that are obvious and in your face. Some of the most toxic behaviour and actions come in passive and ostensibly innocent forms. In my view Yi Cheng is the black flag here; his actions, whatever the motives behind them, drove Lu Feng insane, literally. He slowly broke down Lu Feng's psyche with his practised action of leaving. This created an expectation in Lu Feng's subconscious, and later consciousness, of abandonment. Imagine constantly being abandoned by the one you love; being the last consideration in every conflict. You are left feeling like an afterthought. This caused Lu Feng to become so obsessed with possessing Yi Cheng in such a way that no one else would have access to him. In his mind he will always come last once there are other people in Yi Cheng's life. They say love makes people do crazy things, and here we have Lu Feng doing crazy things in the name of "love".

Yi Cheng fed Lu Feng hope of a future together only to pull the rug from under him each time; leaving him abandoned. Imagine closing your eyes in trust to be fed love from a spoon only to lick it off a knife. That is psychological torture leading to emotional distress. We must also consider the fact that while Yi Cheng had his brother, mother (before she died), Qin Lang, and Zhuo Lan, Lu Feng practically had no one. No mother, an abusive father, and a sister abroad/busy who appeased his father, so having not been fed love from a spoon from family he is left to lick it off a knife trusting not to get cut. Cue the song:

"The first cut is the deepest
Baby, I know, the first cut is the deepest
And when it comes to being lucky, she's cursed
When it comes to loving me, she's worst"

See what I mean by sacrificing the authenticity of the story; the writers have created such a story that allows me to paint Lu Feng as a victim. Oh, what an offence they have led me to commit.

I do concede that Lu Feng had underlying psychotic issues which were catalysed by Yi Cheng's actions.

Yi Cheng - Starved of Choices and Autonomy

It is not completely Yi Cheng's fault that he is a walking black flag or at least has toxic tendencies. From the very beginning of the series we see Lu Feng pressure Yi Cheng and force his romantic and obsessive feelings onto him. Yi Cheng had no room to breathe and arrive at his own independent feelings. He was bombarded with not just coming to terms with love but also sexual awakening. In the first NC scene we see his hesitance and reluctance, but he ended going through with have sex with Lu Feng because of Lu Feng's persistence (I believe in the novel it was actually more an act of rape). The consequence of not interrogating his own sexual awaking came crashing when he woke up after and ran out of the house.

We see again Yi Cheng being robbed of choices and autonomy when he is outed. Both his parents and brother stripped him of any real choice in making decisions for himself.

Yi Cheng became a walking vessel hot with emotions. They say you strike the iron when it is hot because it is at that time when it is most malleable. Yi Cheng became malleable to everyone around him; being pushed into whatever direction. This became a habit. He constantly bent to the pressure from his brother and mother. Ultimately, the selfish desires of both led Yi Cheng to be selfish towards Lu Feng because it was easier to be selfish to him than to be selfish to his family for the sake of his own happiness.

Yi Cheng was trained to not decide for himself. Even in the very end he still capitulated to his brother's urging to move away from Lu Feng. He did choose Lu Feng in the end, but the damage was already done because again Lu Feng was abandoned, even if it was only for a few minutes. The duration does not matter only the act itself having taken place.

I do not think Yi Cheng had much choice and independence in his relationship with Lu Feng. Where one lacks independence and autonomy they are bound to suffer the consequences set in motion by others.

Love or Obsession?

Can love and obsession coexist in any relationship? Does one cancel out the other?

I think any answer is purely subjective. There can be no definitive and objective answer. I am of the opinion that yes they can coexist. It is really a matter of degree. But then the question turns to what degree of obsession is too much? My answer is that so long as the degree of love is greater than that of obsession coexistence can occur. Now looking to the series at hand, the question to be asked is was there a greater degree of love than obsession?

In my opinion Lu Feng was always more obsessed than in love with Yi Cheng. That obsession only manifested in greater severity as the series progressed. It became so severe that he equated absolute possession of Yi Cheng to loving him. He became an addict and Yi Cheng his only drug of choice. He became imprisoned by this obsession.

It is easy to look solely at Lu Feng when discussing obsession, but what do you call a man who runs back to a man who ostensibly killed his parents, crippled his brother, forced himself on him (the writers made it difficult to say rape like what happened in the novel), imprisoned him, and emotional abused him - I call that obsessed.

Both Lu Feng and Yi Cheng became addicted to each other; their obsessions feeding the other. Can love exist in such circumstances, or is mutual blind obsession the ultimate form of love? Cue the song:

"Don't blame me, love made me crazy
If it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right
Lord, save me, my drug is my baby
I'll be usin' for the rest of my life"

Parents

I am glad they both died, and I make no apology for feeling this way.

I do not think I need to go into all the ways they manipulated their children, and in Lu Feng's case abused him. Plus this post is getting way too long.

The Most Selfish Character EVER!

There is no way I am going to let this motherfucker slide. I hate Yi Cheng's brother to the greatest degree. He is spoiled and selfish; the most selfish character I have ever had the displeasure of watching. Do not be fooled by the idea that he was only acting out of love for his brother. He did not give a damn how his brother felt. He only cared about how he felt about the situation. He is determined to have his brother to himself. There is something deeper there, but because this post is already so long I will not venture into the underlying sexual nature of his brotherly love towards Yi Cheng. I will just point to those very early episodes right up to Yi Cheng's outing. Sigmund Freud would eat this up.

NB - I have to stop here because of the time (2:52 am) and the length of this post. However, let me just mention the motif of Yi Chen running out into the rain and Lu Feng running after him to bring him back. Great symbolism to be discussed here, but time and post length are against me.

Rating:

Writing - 1/2

Acting - 1.5/2

Chemistry - 1.5/2

Production - 2/2

Music - 1/1

Special 10 Scene - 0/1

Total Rating = 7/10